Page 86 of Devoured

A flaming, excruciating lie.

He winks at me, tucks his hands back in his pockets, and begins to wander off. But before he makes it very far, he pauses. “You ought to follow me. Cora demands to see you now, and I hear she’s a real bitch to those who don’t obey.”

Oh god. My stomach swoops sickeningly low, my rage crashing with a single, agonizing breath. “She sent you here? To retrieve me?” Shit. I haven’t seen her in weeks. And Sin is… nowhere to be found. Realization twists like a knife in my heart.

For weeks, he’s been around. For weeks, he’s been keeping track of his mother, making sure she doesn’t come near me. But now he’s gone, and Cora wants to see me.

Blood roars in my ears.

The young man nods as if nothing is wrong, however. As if this is perfectly routine.

It’s not, though. She’ll have been waiting to punish me—to truly punish me—for Sin’s betrayal. For my refusal to torture Valja. For her humiliation.

“She wishes to see you,” the man says. “She says you’re a very interesting little wolf to watch. Someone to whom we should all aspire.” His eyes rove my body and face with keen awareness, and his voice lowers. “Is that true, Vanessa Hart?”

Instantly, I understand why his scent is buried beneath hers. Why he keeps glancing around with curiosity at every wall. Why he keeps staring at me. “You’re new,” I say. “You’re one of her new werewolves.”

“You could say that.” He beckons me forward with a subtle jerk of his chin. “Let’s go. Mustn’t keep the queen waiting. I hear that’s a very, very bad thing to do.”

Very, very bad, I think, or life-ending?

With no other choice, I follow him down the corridor and pray to god that no one I love is about to die.

Cora waits for me in the same room as before.

Little has changed in the past few weeks. There remains scant furniture and decoration while the hearth now burns with mortal orange flames. The crackling of logs and the thick stench of char overpower most everything else, save for the familiar, nauseating musk of dead roses. Cora leans against a covered object—something tall and wide and sheathed in black silk—with a knife-sharp smile on her ghastly face. She straightens only when the door shuts behind me.

“Oh, good, Evander. You found her.” Cora’s gaze sears straight through mine. “It can be so difficult to find Vanessa anymore. She loves avoiding me, you see.”

My heart clenches. Fear rises in my throat. But I clear it and hold my head high. “You sent for me, Your Majesty.”

I don’t bother looking at the man beside me. Evander. His presence has begun to feel more like a tick clamped on my thigh. A parasite I can’t seem to shake off.

“It was a pleasure,” Evander says happily. Honestly. “She’s a peach.” He strolls inside and joins Cora near the mysteriously covered object.

Cora, however, doesn’t pay him any mind. She merely examines her nails in the firelight. “I am disappointed in you, Vanessa. I thought we’d reached an understanding. But perhaps I only imagined our many discussions. Is that it, do you think?” She doesn’t wait for my response. Her voice hardens into steel. “It must be. Because only a goddamned fool would disobey me otherwise. I told you to test your powers on Valja, and you refused. I sent you to the dungeon, and my son broke you out. You just don’t listen. And I am tired of making you try.”

“I—”

“No. I rather think you’ve had your turn to speak. In fact, you’ve had weeks of it, haven’t you?” Her gaze falls to my wrists, as if she can see my mangled scars through my sweatshirt, see the lashes of bloodred and moon white. “One little fight couldn’t shatter the bond I’ve cultivated with my son. He hasn’t left my side in weeks.” Her gaze flares, the fire reflected in the black of her eyes as her loathing shimmers like smoke. “You must have known it would come to this.”

My organs snarl under her watchful stare, and my skin prickles with frightened awareness. It’s as if I’ve been carved open and trapped in a cage with a starving beast. There doesn’t seem to be a way out. “I’m sorry I disobeyed you.”

Evander laughs at that, entirely amused, but I refuse to look at him. I keep my gaze fixed on Cora instead.

“And now you’re lying to me?” She tilts her head as shadows crawl across the walls behind her, seemingly alive and far too close.

“No. Of course not. I am sorry. I should have listened to you and practiced on Valja. It—it was a mistake. A terrible mistake, and I swear I’ll never repeat it again.” I try to move away from her, but my feet won’t obey. My ankles burn from the stifling heat. Beads of sweat begin to gather in my hair, along my arms, and I instinctively touch my wrist. She tracks the movement. Like the beast she is, her lips stretch wider, into a ravenous grin.

“Sweet words, Vanessa, but weeks too late.”

Smoke thickens the air until I can barely see in front of my own face. De-escalate, Vanessa. Just de-escalate. My gaze moves to the covered object. To whatever is surely meant to torture me now.

She lifts a shoulder carelessly. “I warned you what would happen, Vanessa. Don’t act like this is anyone’s fault but your own.”

I can’t stop staring at that covered object. Sin was nowhere to be found today. Is he… under there? Did she kidnap him?

“Cora, where is Sin?”